


in your fantasy, dream about me (and all that we could do with this emotion)

by rc1788



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Modern AU, WinterFalcon - Freeform, i hate picking these tags oh my god
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-05-04 18:14:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14598831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rc1788/pseuds/rc1788
Summary: Sam and Steve have been living together for a few years now, but Steve's job takes him to the other side of the country, and he decides to end things with Sam. Sam not only has to deal with getting dumped, but he's gotta find a roommate too--so he finds a grad student named Bucky Barnes to move in with him. Sam's not quite sure how to deal with Bucky's "youthful energy" (Sam is almost 30, for chrissake, and hasn't been to a club in a year or two), and Bucky isn't sure how to deal with the handsome man that's subleasing his apartment. ... Or what to do when said handsome man's ex returns.





	in your fantasy, dream about me (and all that we could do with this emotion)

**Author's Note:**

> I got this roommate AU as a request (cough) a year ago (cough) from a tumblr user that I can't find at the moment. That's my own freakin fault for not posting something sooner. Anyway, please enjoy this first (brief) chapter. I have more written and I'll post it up soon!

Sam is having the worst week ever.

Sunday: Sam’s car got totaled. _Wham_. T-boned by a guy running a red light. The old 2003 Hyundai Sonata was finished. The insurance claim went through surprisingly fast, and since Sam was still bruised and shaken up, he thought: why not get a nice new car? He spent six years in school and two years in residency, and now he had a job as a clinical pharmacist at the VA. He could afford a nice down payment and everything (nevermind that he was saving for a house, but all in due time--he was only 28, anyway).

Monday: one new Subaru Outback later, Sam’s got a voicemail from his live-in boyfriend Steve, who was out of town for work.

“Hey, Sam. Can you give me a call back when you get this? Talk to you soon. Bye.”

Which is… not unlike Steve to leave a voicemail when he could text instead, but something about his tone had Sam worried.

“Hey, Steve,” Sam said, guarding himself already.

“Sam. Hey. I… so I’m being transferred.”

“Oh?” Sam’s voice gets low. “Where?”

“Portland. Oregon. I leave on Wednesday.”

“Oh… oh, wow. Shit.”

“I know. It’s really fast.” Then Steve pauses. Sam’s mind fills in the empty space with what he’s about to say. It’s not hard to figure out--Steve’s a busy guy, sure, but throughout the two years they’d been together he always made time. Maybe he’s getting bored. Doesn’t want to settle. It hurts, it tears Sam’s chest right open. _I’m getting dumped_. 

“I’m… I really care about you, Sam, but with our schedules and everything, I think maybe it would be a good idea if we … take a break.”

“A break.” He’s letting Sam down easy like this. It’s not a break. It’s permanent.

“I think maybe we should just be friends. A long distance relationship would be really tough for me right now.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Sam?”

“No, you’re right. It would be tough. For you.”

They sealed the deal and hung up.

Sam hadn’t cried that hard in a long time.

So Steve dumped him and moved across the country in the span of two days, leaving Sam with full rent to pay and a new car payment. Jesus-fucking-Christ.

Now it’s Friday, it’s 6:30 in the morning, and a patient on the SICU step-down is definitely trying to die.

“His labs are totally trashed,” said Riley, tapping his pen on the screen. “Renal failure, falling O2 sats, everything. They had to intubate him last night.”

Sam stared at the chart on the screen, scrolled down the list of medical problems and updates from the overnight resident.

“What’s up, Wilson?” Riley asked.

Sam figured the sooner he told Riley what happened, the sooner he could move on with his day. “Steve dumped me.”

“ _What_?”

“He’s moving to Portland for work. Doesn’t want a long distance relationship. Hey, do you think we should hold the vancomycin dose? Look at this creatinine clearance.”

“Wait wait wait wait. Steve _dumped_ you?”

“I’m gonna hold the dose.”

“Sam.” Riley scoots his chair closer. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I need a few days to eat pints of ice cream.”

“I’m sorry, man. I thought you and Steve…”

 _Together forever_? “Yeah, well. Shit happens.” Sam ran a hand over his face and flipped a page in his binder.

Riley wouldn’t leave him alone all day--took him out to lunch, wrote up chart notes with him in the afternoon. He offered his place up to Sam to crash, but Sam wouldn’t have it. Living on his own was important to him after couch surfing with various friends and family all through school--even if living on his own meant getting a roommate. 

Sam and Riley went to a meeting together about stroke treatment protocols, then Riley lingered by Sam’s car in the parking garage.

“So what are you gonna do?” he asked.

Sam shrugged. “Get a roommate, I guess. I can make this month’s rent, then... yeah. Anyway, it’s okay. I’m okay.”

“Will you call me if you need anything? Don't do that thing where you suffer silently cuz you're too proud.”

“Yes, Riley,” Sam said with a begrudging sigh as Riley put a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks, man.”

\---

Sam couldn’t sleep, and it was Friday night, which used to be his date nights with Steve. Now Steve lived on the other side of the country and they hadn’t talked since he moved his stuff out on Thursday. Sam had a headache and this constant ache in his chest like somebody was rubbing their knuckles on his sternum. _Christ_ , he’d been dumped before--numerous times--and in worse ways than this, but did it have to hurt so fucking bad?

NEED ROOMMATE, AVAILABLE NOW--2 BR, 1.5 BATH APARTMENT $600/MONTH PLUS UTILITIES

Sam felt a little sick posting the ad, but what choice did he have? He couldn’t afford rent in the city alone. He’d have to move in with Riley and his husband (ugh, no) or back in with Mom (not again!) and… well, it wasn’t exactly out of the question to get a roommate from the Internet. Right?

\---

“Hi I saw your ad for a roommate, I can pay $300 a month, please call me back…”

“.... have to let my probation officer know…”

“I can’t get a bank account so is cash okay? I can move in once I get my shit out of my ex’s…”

Sam glared at his phone and deleted the messages. He was about to go delete his ad when his phone started ringing. He almost screened the call to his voicemail, but he answered it anyway.

“Hello, this is Sam.”

“Hi, Sam? I’m calling about your ad for a roommate.”

“Okay. What’s your name?”

“I’m Bucky Barnes and I’m going to be starting grad school this summer. It’s all really last minute and I could use a roommate.”

“Oh. Yeah. Grad school, huh? Okay.” Sam weighed his options. Burnouts, ex-cons… a student, though? That could work. Better jump at the chance. “You wanna come by and see the place?”

“Sure, that would be great. I’m free, uhm, today?”

“Two o’clock?”

“Sure!”

“Okay. Here’s the address.”

\---

At two minutes til, Sam heard a knock on his door. For the past two hours, he’d been stress cleaning the entire apartment--dirty dishes washed, clutter put away or hidden, floors cleaned, nice candles burning to make sure the place didn’t smell like feet. He had to drag a chair and some boxes out of the second bedroom, remembering with a twist in his gut that him and Steve used it as a study instead of a bedroom. But this could be okay. A student would be great. He’d be busy with schoolwork and maybe Sam wouldn’t have to bother trying to be his friend or anything. They could just coexist and live in the city splitting rent like two normal adults.

Sam opened the door. “Hi. Bucky?” There were two guys at the door which was _confusing_.

“Hi. I’m Bucky.”

Bucky was tall and handsome and had long hair. He wore a light denim jacket with a plaid shirt underneath it, and his eyes were startlingly blue.

“I’m Sam,” said Sam, then they both looked at Bucky’s friend.

“This is Clint,” Bucky said. “He’s just tagging along.”

“Hey,” Clint waved.

Made sense, bringing a friend to a stranger’s house. Sam’s catastrophic thinking warned him that these two guys could overpower him and steal his--steal his _what_? He had a 32’’ flatscreen TV and an Xbox 360. Oh, and a Macbook Pro from eight years ago that was actively trying to die. What the fuck would they even steal? Sam showed them inside, down the short hallway that led into the kitchen space. The kitchen had an L-shaped countertop with a sink and breakfast bar, and was open to the living room. Down the hall were the two bedrooms and bathroom.

“Looks nice,” Clint said with a shrug to Bucky when they finished the apartment tour.

“I really like the place,” Bucky said. He had that youthful glow about him, which seemed _exhausting_ , but Sam noticed the guy had a Rolex watch and the latest iPhone, which meant maybe the rent wouldn’t be late. Or Bucky was a drug dealer. But if the rent wasn’t late, that would be okay. Maybe. Shit.

“Yeah?” Sam asked, suffocating his catastrophic thinking _again_.

“Yeah! I’d love to stay here.”

Bucky (what a stupid fucking name) had a big grin on his face, and wide eyes that made him look like an innocent angel that had never seen the world before. Did grad school really kick the soul out of Sam that bad?

“Okay.” Sam smiled. “Deal. I’ll get the lease together.”

\---

Bucky Barnes was having a great week!

Last minute, he got word from his top choice university that he’d gotten into their MFA program for creative writing. And the university was in the city, where he’d always wanted to live! So Dad got him a new laptop as a graduation-now-grad-school gift, and now all he had to do was move to the city! With his new roommate! Who--

The door shut behind them and Bucky held his breath until they were two floors away, then he started to make a silent screaming noise.

“What?” Clint asked.

“Oh, my god!” Bucky smacked Clint on the arm. “He’s so cute.”

“Who?”

“ _Sam_.”

“Who?”

“My new roommate?”

“Oh, that guy. Yeah, I guess? You tell me guys are cute and I just gotta take your word for it. All guys look like potatoes to me.”

“He’s like the chili cheese fries of potatoes.”

“That literally means nothing to me.”

“I wanna eat him.”

Clint pauses on the stairs and grips the banister while looking over his shoulder at Bucky with a quirked brow. “Like… in a biblical sense?”

“Yes.”

“Huh. Okay, I kinda get that. Sure. So you’re just gonna move in with this guy, and…?”

“Do you think he’s, y’know, gay?”

“I can’t believe… you just asked me… Have you been here for this conversation _at all_?”

Bucky sighed dramatically and threw back his head. “Whatever, he’s probably straight. At least I’ve got an apartment.”

\---

Bucky moved in on Sunday. Well, _moved in_ was a strong phrase.

The dude had three boxes, a suitcase, and a garment bag. Clint helped him carry everything to the sixth floor apartment and Bucky looked around appraisingly at his room. “I like the natural light in here,” he remarked.

Sam poked his head in from the hallway. “You… do you have a bed?”

“What? Oh! Yeah. Well, no. I better go get a bed. You wanna go to IKEA, Clint?”

“Not really.”

Bucky blinked and seemed to calculate if he could go buy a whole fucking bed by himself.

“I’ll go,” Sam heard himself say. Not that he wanted to get to know this roommate, who was strictly a roommate, and not cute ( _cute_? no, the dude was 22 and practically a child!), and was just some dude from the Internet Sam made sign a legal agreement for their living arrangement.

Except, when Bucky smiled at Sam’s offer, he just seemed so… so… _wow_.

“Great, let’s go!”

Turns out, Bucky _really likes_ shopping, so they spent three hours at IKEA. Three. Hours.

“Shit,” Bucky said as they wheeled the cart of boxed furniture to the parking lot. “Is this gonna fit in your car?”

Barely.

Then Sam and Bucky had to carry all of it up six floors of stairs. Luckily, Bucky’s friends Clint and Nat came over to help after Bucky promised pizza and beer.

All in all, a productive Sunday for Sam’s new roommate. Sam had to get used to the other presence in his apartment, and the fact that he had friends over. All fine. Just part of the arrangement. Maybe they could throw a dinner party and invite Riley and his husband over…

No no no. Him and Bucky were just roommates.

Sam retreated to his own room to watch Netflix on his laptop for the rest of the evening, and definitely _definitely_ never think about his _roommate_ Bucky Barnes shopping in IKEA with his hair in a messy bun looking at a philodendron plant with eyes full of wonder.

_**Roommates.** _


End file.
